Jeremy Jauncey on how to grow a meaningful following on Instagram

1. Content is King

Brands rely on strong imagery to promote themselves on social, so it’s vital to share high-quality visuals on your page – this goes for both photos and video. Avoid sharing traditional stock imagery as these types of images don’t engage viewers or visually tell a story, lessening their chance of being shared with others who could potentially start following you.

2. What’s the story?

India (Beautiful Destinations)

Beautiful Destinations’ content focuses on inspiring others to get out and travel. Try to have one theme throughout all of your posts, so your community knows exactly what to expect when they visit your page. This could be anything from fitness, to food or fashion, but make sure it’s something that you are genuinely passionate about. Our team has different approaches to creating and sharing content for each of our platforms. For example, we have a flowchart we use for YouTube to determine if a proposed video idea fits the types of narratives we want to tell through longer form video.

3. Stick to an 80/20 rule

Hanging out in Central Park, New York (Beautiful Destinations)

Once you know what your story is, try to stick to an 80/20 rule, which means 80 per cent of the time, content should help, entertain or motivate an audience depending on what they enjoy. The other 20 per cent can be more brand/self-promotional. This will ensure your audience continues to come back time and time again for a takeaway and isn’t turned off by overly-promotional content.

4. Share content daily

One of the most important things to remember in terms of growing your audience, is to make sure you are sharing consistent and quality content daily with your followers. This will keep you top of mind with your audience and continually adding value.

5. It’s a conversation

I try to engage as much as possible with other like-minded followers or brands and grow my network through conversation, much like in real life. A simple comment on a post is a great way to strike up conversation and can help attract new and relevant followers from that particular user’s page.

6. Hashtags

Hashtags are a useful tool to help to grow your following on Instagram, as they provide other users the opportunity to discover your feed if they are posting similar content. However, these should be used sparingly as they are often overused by people in an attempt to increase their number of likes and followers. While these may help you grow your audience, these extra followers may not always be relevant to your page.

7. Video content

Seventy-four per cent of all online traffic will be video by the end of the year. It’s the most compelling social content and receives the best engagement, so posting video content is an effective way to grow your following. All social media platforms, especially Facebook and Instagram, are putting an emphasis on video and providing better placement in their feeds for this content.

8. Go Live

It’s a great idea to utilise Instagram Live and Instagram Stories wherever possible as this instantly engages your followers, offering them a snapshot of what is going on in that moment. On Instagram, creating this type of content will help your chances of being featured in Instagram's Explore section, exposing you to people who might not already follow you and encourage additional followers.

Jeremy in the Philippines (Beautiful Destinations)

9. New features

I always stay on top of the latest social trends by taking advantage of new features as they roll out. Don’t be afraid to try new things at least once – it will help you figure out what works for your followers and what doesn’t.

Beautiful Destinations is a millennial media company that shares authentic, inspirational and immersive travel stories. Founded by CEO Jeremy Jauncey, Beautiful Destinations has built the largest travel community on social media with over 15 million followers in 180 countries. Follow Beautiful Destinations on Instagram here.